Top News:
Dave McNary / Variety:
Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened with a box-office gross of $45M, the second-largest Thursday preview in North America, behind The Force Awakens — The Force remains unstoppable as Disney-Lucasfilm's “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” opened with $45 million on Thursday night.
Discussion:
Deadline, Deadline, The New York Observer, Box Office Mojo, Forbes, CinemaBlend, /Film, 89.3 KPCC, IndieWire, The A.V. Club, The Wrap, Fortune, Polygon, Forbes and UPROXX
Shruthi Muraleedharan / Facebook:
Facebook debuts Snooze, a News Feed feature to temporarily unfollow a person, Page, or group for 30 days — One of our core News Feed values is giving people more control. Over the next week, we're launching Snooze, which will give you the option to temporarily unfollow a person, Page or group for 30 days.
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, The Guardian, Forbes, TechCrunch, Pocket-lint, The Ringer, UPROXX, The Verge, iDownloadBlog.com, Variety, VentureBeat, Mashable, Axios, CNET, Daily Mail, TIME, Engadget, Business Insider and Mashable, more at Techmeme »
Yashar Ali / HuffPost:
Ten current and former Fox News on-air staffers say they faced harassment by execs and talent, refuting Rupert Murdoch's dismissal of allegations as “nonsense” — The media mogul said claims of rampant sexual harassment at the network are “nonsense.”
Discussion:
The Wrap, @badfoxgraphics, Media Matters for America, UPROXX, Mediaite, New York Times and Forbes
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
How Ridley Scott replaced Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World in just 9 days, amidst Sony's heavy publicity push and award buzz — LOS ANGELES — The sun was setting on Nov. 7, when Christopher Plummer arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan for a secret, hastily arranged meeting.
Discussion:
Vanity Fair, @nytimes, @abc and IndieWire
Ryan J. Reilly / HuffPost:
Assistant US Attorney Rizwan Qureshi calls journalist's knowledge of terms “black bloc” and “kettle” suspicious in Trump inauguration felony cases — The U.S. government told a D.C. jury that six people — including a photographer and two medics — “agreed to destroy your city.”
Michael Wolff / Hollywood Reporter:
A look at the dynamics among Rupert Murdoch and his children, and how their business interests may have influenced the Disney deal — When the media titan unloads the bulk of Fox to Disney rather than letting it pass to his heirs, it proves he has always has had a favorite Murdoch — himself.
Discussion:
CNNMoney, Bloomberg and Broadcasting & Cable
RELATED:
Rebecca Leber / Mother Jones:
Environmental Protection Agency signed a no-bid $120K contract with Republican opposition research firm Definers Corp., to help track and shape press coverage — It promises “war room” style media monitoring. … Using taxpayer dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency has hired …
Isaac Stone Fish / Washington Post:
After China's Integrated Whale Media bought a majority stake in Forbes in 2014, several cases of editorial meddling have raised questions about independence — When a Chinese company buys a major American magazine, does the publication censor its coverage of China?
Discussion:
@mathewi, Talking Biz News, @stinson, @gwbstr, @raykwong, @raju, @bethanyallenebr, @anderscorr, @john_hudson, @melissakchan and @whitebison66
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Iger plans to make Hulu the outlet for Fox's more “adult-oriented product”; whether Disney will try to buy out Comcast's and TimeWarner's stakes remains unclear — Nothing will change immediately at Hulu in the wake of Disney's $52 billion deal with 21st Century Fox.
Discussion:
Forbes, The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The New York Observer and Los Angeles Times
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Splice, a startup that sells digital tools and music samples to musicians, raises $35M in Series B funding — Steve Martocci's first company was a text messaging service. Now he's behind the scenes of a Demi Lovato song. — Making money selling songs is hard: Just ask Spotify …
Discussion:
Billboard, Business Wire and hypebot
Peter Dreier / American Prospect:
Bill Moyers, one of the most prolific and influential figures in American journalism, retires again, from BillMoyers.com — Bill Moyers has threatened to retire several times. Each time, the many fans and friends have urged the legendary PBS journalist to reconsider, and each time he did.
Discussion:
BillMoyers.com, @peterdreier, @nicholsuprising, @billmoyers and @randycoppinger
Tony Romm / Recode:
A coalition of state attorneys general, led by the New York AG, pledge to sue the FCC for repealing net neutrality rules — States like Washington and New York are gearing up to fight the FCC's recent repeal — The United States is about to go to war with itself over net neutrality.
Discussion:
New York Times, Talking New Media, VentureBeat, Ars Technica, Metro, CityLab, The Verge, Bustle, Ars Technica, Fast Company, The New York Observer, kottke.org, Washington State, The Montana Post, U.S. Senator Ed Markey …, Fortune, @matthewstoller, Forbes, Talking Biz News, New York Magazine, 9to5Mac, Free Press, MacRumors, New York Times and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
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